Do YOU Believe That JWs Have A Huge Problem With Pedophiles?

by minimus 120 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  Band on the Run

  It is not the initial crime that is so shocking. Every religion will attract pedophiles, particularly those with access to children without much scrutiny. As with Watergate and the Roman Catholic Church, it is the cover up that is so bad. I see no scriptural basis for the two witness rule. How many pedophiles will do it in front of an adult? They confuse legal standards with Christian standards. Allegations alone should not be enough to condemn someone. Look at how many Sandusky victims have stepped forward since the publicity.

  The criminal law does not require two witnesses. There are other probative criteria to employ. Lie detector tests, consistency with other children's stories.

  I don't know anything about the pedophile underground but the Witnesses provide unsupervised access to children, children with pathological deference to adults, many boys without fathers (if my KH was normal).
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  ScenicViewer

  blond-moment said,

  The issue is how pedophiles are dealt with. The 2 witness rule protects the pedophile...

  That is a very important point. The way the Watchtower handles such cases is a complete mis-application of the 2 witness rule. There will virtually never be 2 witnesses to such an event. In the end, what the WTS is really protecting besides, the pedophile, is itself, it's own image.
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  minimus

  The fact that the Watchtower abides by Old Testament laws is very telling for a "Christian" religion.
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  wobble

  The problem is that they have no proper functioning programme in place to protect the vulnerable, plus they have no system of trackimg Paedo's and notifying a congregation when one moves in, and they do not do CRB checks !

  So, we may not believe the problem is any worse than any other religion (who are you comparing it to, the RC church?) but nobody really knows.

  They must be made to get the best possible systems in place to tackle and prevent the problem, not just try to bury it after the crime has been committed, by then a child's life has been stolen.
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  TheClarinetist

  I did a little math earlier this year based on some statistics I found about pedophiles in the Jehovah's Witnesses, and came to the [highly un-scientific] conclusion the Jehovah's Witnesses have slightly less pedophiles than the average population. Like has already been said in this thread, the issue is not that there are too many pedophiles in the congregations, but instead that they aren't dealt with properly.
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  Shanagirl

  This is my opinion. I believe the JW religion has an extensive problem with pedophilia due to it's family run congregations. You get pedophiles molesting children in his family. These family members grow up keeping his secret problem a secret. There is even more eagerness to keep the pedophile's secret when these victims marry into other congregations, and other family members become elders. It's an incestuous mess in the JW's. There is nepotism, and incest, and a high motivation to keep it all from becoming known lest you "besmearch Jehovah's name". Not only does the victim hear from the pedophile not to talk about it, but then the elders tell victims not to talk about it even among other members in the family. JWs make the pedophile priests look miniscule in comparison. JMHO

  Shana
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  steve2

  Given that pedophiles are skilled liars and deceivers and that there deeds often do not surface for decades, estimates of their numbers are pure and utter guesswork. Everytime a news report identifies a pedophile as belonging to a religion it inflames notions of how many there are and the speculation begins again. Understandable but unhelpful.

  Other considerations are way more important than sheer "numbers"; these include:

  The Watchtower's shameful hypocrisy in criticising other religions such as the Catholics for having a pedophile "problems" but downplaying their own problem with them; conveniently preserving a literal reading of the Judaic 2 witnesses command but elsewhere stating that the old law has been superseded by the new covenant (this literal reading protects pedophiles whose "livelihoods" thrive on secrecy and isolating their victims - so there are seldom 2 witnesses to the same offence); putting a higher priority on the religion's "public image" than children's safety and disfellowshipping members who question the Watchtower's "policy" on pedophilia.
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  cult classic

  Witnesses don't have a higher than normal amount of pedophile cases. Pedophilia is a worldwide problem. And the way witnesses handle it isn't unique either. People in general have a hard time accepting and confronting this crime. We see that with the Penn State situation. There are many other examples.

  But when a person is touched by it personally it tends to become larger than life. And understandably so.
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  mind blown

  YOU'RE MISSING THE POINT!

  JW's are supposed to be stead fast in obeying the law, as long as it doesn't interfere with worship. IT'S A CRIME AND AGAINST THE LAW TO RAP OR SEXUALLY ABUSE CHILDREN. PERIOD. They need to be turned in and let the proper authroities investiage a matter as such. These are not just little congregation spats.......these are HUGE CRIMINAL OFFENSES.
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  minimus

  I'm not missing any point.

  A few years ago, on this site and elsewhere, some people went crazy with the view that the Witnessses were just as bad as the Catholic church. I still don't believe that.